Municipal wastewater electrical power generation assembly and a method for generating electrical power

ABSTRACT

An electrical generating assembly  10  which may be selectively used in combination with and/or as part of a municipal wastewater treatment facility  12  and which allows the wastewater treatment facility  12  to generate electrical energy  48,62, 13  as received wastewater  14  is cleaned.

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/928,243 which was filed on Dec. 7, 2010 which was a continuation ofSer. No. 12/229,533 which was filed on Aug. 22, 2008 and which maturedinto U.S. Pat. No. 7,915,749 and priority is claimed from each of theforegoing delineated patent application.

GENERAL BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to a municipal wastewaterelectrical power generating assembly and to a method for generatingelectrical power and, more particularly, to an assembly and to a methodwhich allows for the efficient generation of electrical power from awastewater treatment facility according to a variety of generatingstrategies which may be selectively used in a desired manner.

2. Background of the Invention

A wastewater treatment facility typically receives waste laden waterbased liquid (generally and most typically denoted as “wastewater”) andis adapted to and actually treats the contained waste by removingundesirable waste constituents from the received liquid and returns orgenerates or “creates” substantially “clean” water. Typically, such atreatment facility is owned and operated by a municipality and thetreated liquid which emanates from that municipality (i.e., thegenerated or produced “clean” water) is transmitted back to citizens orresidents of that municipality.

While these wastewater treatment facilities do indeed desirably treatsuch waste liquid, they undesirably utilize a lot of electrical energyand the cost of such energy is increasing. Moreover the cost and use ofsuch electrical energy for all purposes is vastly increasing throughoutthe world.

The present invention enhances the operational performance of suchwastewater treatment facilities by allowing for the efficient generationof electrical power as part of the overall wastewater treatment process,wherein such generated electrical power may be used for a variety ofpurposes and in a variety of applications.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is a first non-limiting object of the present invention to provide anassembly which may be used within a wastewater treatment facility andwhich allows for the generation of electrical power as part of theoverall wastewater treatment process.

It is a second non-limiting object of the present invention to provide amethod for generating electrical power as part of a wastewater treatmentprocess.

It is a third non-limiting object of the present invention to provide anassembly and a method which is adapted to employ a plurality ofelectrical energy generating strategies and to allow several or all or aselected singular strategy to be selectively employed.

According to a first non-limiting aspect of the present invention anassembly is provided for use in combination with a wastewater treatmentfacility of the type which receives waste containing liquid and whichproduces substantially clean water and waste, the assembly of thepresent invention including a first portion which selectively receivesthe substantially clean water and which generates electricity by use ofthe received substantially clean water; a second portion which receivesthe waste and which generates electricity by use of the received waste;and a third portion which controls the operation of the first and secondportions.

According to a second non-limiting aspect of the present invention, amethod for generating electrical energy is provided. Particularly, themethod includes receiving wastewater which comprises a combination ofwater and waste; removing the waste from the wastewater, therebyproducing substantially clean water; causing the substantially cleanwater to flow through a first turbine assembly and to thereafter enter aretention pond, producing gas from the received waste; and using the gasto operate a second turbine assembly, wherein the first and secondturbine assemblies are each adapted to selectively produce electricalenergy.

According to a third non-limiting aspect of the present invention anassembly is provided for use in combination with a wastewater treatmentfacility of the type which receives waste containing liquid and whichproduces substantially clean water and waste, the assembly of thepresent invention including a first portion which selectively receivesthe substantially clean water and which generates electricity by use ofthe substantially clean water; a second portion which receives the wasteand which generates waste gas; a third portion which selectivelyreceives the waste gas and which generates electricity by use of thewaste gas; a controller which is coupled to said first, second, andthird portions and which controls the operation of the first, second,and third portions.

According to a fourth non-limiting aspect of the present invention amethod for generating electrical energy is provided. Particularly, themethod comprises a plurality of electric energy generating strategiesinvolving wastewater; and selectively utilizing the predeterminedcontrol strategies in a manner which allows a substantially constantamount of electric energy to be produced.

These and other aspects, features, and advantages of the presentinvention will become apparent from a reading of the detaileddescription of the preferred embodiment of the invention and byreference to the following drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the assembly and method for generatingelectrical power according to the teachings of the preferred embodimentof the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown an electrical power generationassembly 10 which is made in accordance with the teachings of thepreferred, although non-limiting, invention and which is operativelydeployed within and which operates in combination with and/or whichforms a part of an overall wastewater treatment facility 12, such as butnot-limited to a municipal wastewater treatment facility.

Particularly, as should be known to those of ordinary skill in the art,the wastewater treatment facility 12 receives wastewater 14 and produceswater 16 which has a reduced amount of organic material. This “cleaned”water 16 (i.e., sometimes referred to as “substantially clean water) istypically sent to a holding tank assembly 48 which may agitate the waterand/or further process the water, before it is deemed to be “drinkable”or potable. The substantially “drinkable” water 5 is transmitted and/ordelivered to the various residents, citizens, and business/otherentities which operate within that municipality. The combination of theorganic removal assembly and the holding tank assembly 30 cooperativelyform the wastewater treatment facility 12, according to one non-limitingembodiment.

The treatment system 12 includes an organic removal assembly 18 (such asan agitator assembly) which is adapted to receive the wastewater 14 andto selectively remove the organic material from the received wastewater14, thereby creating substantially clean water 16. It should beappreciated that the present invention is independent of the actualorganic material removal process and that substantially any desiredorganic removal process may be utilized, of which there may be many.Importantly, according to the known and utilized strategies, thesubstantially clean water 16 is transmitted to holding tanks 30 whilethe removed organic material 36 is typically discarded.

According to the teachings of the present invention, the substantiallyclean water 16, on its way to the holding tanks or pond 30, is made tofirst traverse a first turbine assembly 40 and such traversal causes thegeneration of electrical energy or electrical power 48. That is, theturbine assembly 40 includes the combination of a turbine 101 and agenerator 102 and the moving water 16 causes the blades of the turbine101 to move, and such movement's transferred to the generator 102 whichcauses the generator to generate electricity or electrical power 48. Theobtained organic material 36 is transmitted, in one non-limitingembodiment, to a digester assembly 50 (e.g., comprising in onenon-limiting embodiment, a plurality of holding tanks) and the organicmaterial subsequently produces digester gas 55. This digester gas 55 isthen used to operate a second turbine assembly 60 which may besubstantially similar to assembly 40 and which produces electrical power62 (e.g., the produced gas is made to turn/move the blades of thissecond turbine assembly which causes concomitant movement within asecond generator which is effective to produce electricity or electricalpower 62). Both of the turbine assemblies 40, 60 operate under thedirection and control of controller assembly 70 and may each beselectively connected to the power grid of the municipality where thegenerated electrical power 48,62 may be sold and utilized. Alternativelythe produced electrical power 48, 62 may be utilized by the wastewatertreatment plant itself.

Moreover, the organic material may alternatively be utilized/processedas fertilizer and the digester gas may be transmitted to a heatexchanger assembly and the produced heated air may be usedwithin/outside of the plant 12.

Alternatively or concurrently with the foregoing operation of theturbine assemblies, 40, 60, some or all of the organic material 36 maybe transmitted to a furnace assembly 100 where the received organicmaterial 36 is combusted and made to produce steam 102. The steam 102may then be selectively communicated to a third turbine assembly 110(which may be substantially similar to assembly 40) and the gas 102causes the blades of the third turbine assembly 110 to move while inturn causes the generator portion of the third turbine assembly 110 togenerate electricity 13. Alternatively, the created gas 102 may beselectively communicated to the second turbine assembly 60 which causesthis turbine assembly 60 to produce electricity.

It should be appreciated that the foregoing electric power generatorsystem 10 has three separate and unique power generator strategies(e.g., each strategy, in one non-limiting embodiment uses a uniqueturbine assembly 40, 60, 110) which may be singularly or cooperativelyemployed in any manner (e.g., each strategy may respectively andsingularly be utilized, any two strategies may be utilized, or all threestrategies may be utilized as desired).

It should further be appreciated that the control assembly 70 maycomprise a computer which is operable under stored program control andis coupled to a first control valve 120, a second control valve 130, anda third control valve 140. Particularly, the control assembly 70 iscoupled to valve 120 by bus 119 and by use of valve 120, assembly allowsthe clean water 27 to either flow through the first turbine assembly 40or to bypass the assembly and enter into holding tank assembly 30. Thecontrol assembly 70 is coupled to valve 130 by bus 131 and by use ofvalve 130, assembly 70 either allows or prevents the emitted gas toenter the turbine assembly 60, and the control assembly 70 is coupled tovalve 140 by bus 141 and by the use of control valve 140, assembly 70either allows or prevents material 36 from entering the furnace orcombustion chamber 100. In this manner, the selective activation of thecontrol valves 120, 130, 140 allows for the use of the diversestrategies and such use is important because there may be aninterruption or uneven supply in the substantially clean water 16,and/or the accurate of a fault in one or more of the turbine assemblies40, 60,110 with multiple strategies, and electrical power, to someextent, may continue to be produced even if such a fault or interruptionoccurs. Moreover, the control assembly 70 may be programmed to provide asubstantially constant amount of electric power. That is, in thisproduction it is highly undesirable to have “spikes” (i.e., increases)or troughs (i.e., decreases) in the desired electrical power productionamount. The three strategies may be selectively employed by thecontroller assembly 70 to provide a substantially constant amount ofelectrical power. That is, controller assembly 70 constantly, in onenon-limiting embodiment, monitors the amount of produced electricalpower 48, 62, and 13 (by the use of a power meter assembly which iscoupled to each of the turbine assemblies 40, 60, 110) and, through thecontrol of valves, 120 130, 140, selects which strategies to use inorder to maintain an overall constant amount of generated electricalpower. In yet a further non-limiting embodiment, heat which is exhaustedfrom the furnace assembly 100 may be used/sold to heat homes or otherbuildings. In yet another non-limiting embodiment, a business method isprovided whereby the electric power generation assembly 12 is providedto a municipality and operated by a private entity which provides someof the produced electrical power to that municipality and sells therest, thereby comprising a profitable venture.

It is to be understood that the present inventions are not limited tothe scope or content of the subjoined claims but that variousmodifications may be made without departing from the spirit and thescope of the various inventions which are set forth in the followingclaims.

1. An improved wastewater treatment plant for the treatment ofwastewater which comprises a combination of water and waste and having awastewater treatment assembly which separates the water from the wasteand a holding tank which receives the separated water, wherein theimproved comprising a device which receives the separated water from thewastewater treatment assembly and which utilizes only said receivedseparated water to produce electricity.
 2. An improved wastewatertreatment plant for the treatment of wastewater which comprises acombination of water and waste and having a wastewater treatmentassembly which separates the water from the waste and a holding tankwhich receives the separated water, wherein the improved comprising adevice which receives the separated water from the wastewater treatmentassembly and which utilizes said received separated water to produceelectricity.
 3. An energy generation assembly comprising a furnace whichreceives waste material, which burns waste material, and which generatesgas from said burning of said waste material; and a turbine assemblywhich receives said gas and which uses to produce electricity.